Queen Elizabeth'S Guest Chamber

Queen Elizabeth's Guest Chamber, originally known as the Crown Inn, dates from the late 16th century and is located at 944 High Street. This three-storey building features a hipped tiled roof with three 18th-century hipped tiled dormers. The second floor is pargetted to resemble rusticated masonry and includes three sash windows with intact glazing bars set within moulded architraves. On either side of these windows are two plastered panels from 1663, which display blank shields topped with crowns, roses, and thistles. Central panels depict a putto sitting on a barrel drinking wine, along with bunches of grapes. The first floor combines plastering and timber framing with herringbone brick infill, featuring continuous segmental-headed mullioned windows with leaded lights, as well as two plastered bays with round-arched leaded lights. The ground floor has later shop fronts. Inside, there is a fine plastered ceiling on the first floor adorned with various motifs, which was once the Solar of the Crown Inn in the 16th century. Part of the staircase remains original. The building is part of a group that includes Nos 37 to 46 and Nos 48 and 49.